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TWO DISCOURSES 



THE POPULAR OBJECTIONS 



THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION. 



HENRY A. BOARDMAN, D.D. 

pastor of the tenth Presbyterian church, Philadelphia. 



WILLIAM S. YOUNG, PRINTER.-50 M. SIXTH STREET. 

1849. 






Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 

1849, 

By A. W. Mitchell, M.Xh, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Eastern 
District of Pennsylvania. 



The L 

of Congress 



WASHINGTON 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



Philadelphia, Dec. 30, 1848. 

Rev. Henry A. Boardman, D.D. 

Dear Sir: — The undersigned, members of the con- 
gregation under your pastoral care, listened with much 
interest to the Sermons recently preached by you, on 
what is popularly termed the subject of election. On 
reflection, it has seemed to us that so many of the views 
which the advocates of that time-honoured and vital 
doctrine are called upon to discuss in private life, are 
there considered, that the publication of the discourses 
could not fail to produce extensive practical benefit. 
Permit us, therefore, to request that unless an objection 
to such a course shall present itself to your mind, you 
will furnish us with your manuscript for this purpose. 
We are your attached friends, 

Wm. A. Porter, 
Chas. B. Penrose, 
W. H. Dillingham, 
John R. Vogdes, 
Moses Johnson, 
C. B. Jaudon, 
A. W. Mitchell, 
Wm. Harris. 



IV CORRESPONDENCE. 

Philadelphia, Jan. 2, 1849. 
Gentlemen : 

The Sermons you have requested for publication, were 
prepared and preached under a strong conviction that the 
doctrine of election was by one large class of persons 
misunderstood, and by another grossly perverted. The 
popular conceptions of the doctrine are those which have 
been supplied by its adversaries; and the objections to 
which these are justly obnoxious, have been somewhat 
industriously employed to bring the doctrine itself into 
discredit, and even to discourage inquiry into its scrip- 
tural authority. From this cause, doubtless, the feel- 
ing has come to prevail, that the whole subject is one 
which had better be let alone ; and that the pulpit should 
confine itself to topics of a less mysterious and more 
practical nature. But surely "all scripture is profit- 
able:" truth is in order to holiness: and if election be 
taught, and very prominently taught in the word of God, 
it is not only our duty to receive it, but the belief of it 
must tend legitimately to promote personal religion and 
real peace of mind. No one need fear as to the tendency of 
any doctrine of the Bible. It is when the sacred truths 
of revelation have been deformed and caricatured, that 
they exert an influence prejudicial to sound morality, or 
minister to the alarm of timid and doubting Christians. 
In no other way can we explain the state of feeling now 
so common respecting election — a doctrine so clearly and 



CORRESPONDENCE. V 

unequivocally taught in the Scriptures, that nearly all 
the Reformed Churches have embraced it in their Con- 
fessions, and the due " consideration of which (as the 
Church of England says in her Articles) is full of sweet, 
pleasant, and unspeakable comfort to godly persons." 

It was with a view of removing misconceptions and 
vindicating the doctrine from the more specious of the 
common objections urged against it, that the following 
discourses were written. This, I hope, will be kept in 
mind by those into whose hands they may fall. Had my 
object been to discuss the doctrine itself, the whole 
frame-work of the argument would of course have been 
different, and the scriptural proofs of the doctrine would 
have been cited in due form. 

I am gratified to learn by your polite note, that the 
Sermons have not, in your judgment, entirely failed of 
their mission; and in the hope that they may, by the 
blessing of God, be still further useful, I submit the manu- 
script to your disposal. 

I remain, gentlemen, with great respect, 
Your friend and pastor, 

H. A. BOARDMAN. 
Messrs. Wm. A. Porter, Charles B. Penrose, 

Wm. H. Dillingham, John R. Vogdes, 
Moses Johnson, Charles B. Jaudon. 

A. W. Mitchell,M.D. Wm. Harris, M.D. 



DISCOURSE I. 

THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION NOT DEROCATORY TO GOD. 

"According as he hath chosen us in him before the founda- 
tion of the world, that we should be holy and without blame 
before him in love ; having predestinated us unto the adoption 
of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good 
pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, 
wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved." — Ephe- 
sians i. 4 — 6. 

No doctrine of Christianity has more reason 
to complain of the treatment it has received, 
than the doctrine of Election. With many 
persons, the very name is an offence; and 
they will scarcely listen even to an exposition 
of those texts of Scripture in which the word 
occurs. It is associated in their minds with all 
that is unjust and vindictive : and the attempt 
to establish it by argument, disturbs their equa- 
nimity, if it does not even awaken their re- 
sentment. The unfairness of the course here 



O THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION 

hinted at, must be apparent to every candid in- 
quirer after truth. The class of persons alluded 
to must surely be aware that our natural feel- 
ings constitute no fit standard for testing the 
truth of a doctrine. As in physical science 
many things have been found to be true which 
were once universally discredited, so it may 
very well happen in theology, the first of all 
sciences, that many doctrines shall prove to 
have a solid foundation in the word of God, 
which are quite at variance with the common 
prepossessions and prejudices of men. This re- 
mark will apply to the doctrines of the Trinity., 
regeneration, justification, and possibly some 
others which are fundamental to the Christian 
scheme. Why may it not apply also to the 
doctrine of election? When we remember that 
the relation in which we stand to the Deity is 
that of apostates and condemned criminals, there- 
is a palpable incongruity in the idea of leaving 
the credibility of this doctrine to be determined 
by the promptings of our own hearts, irrespec- 
tive of the testimony of Scripture. 

Another consideration which should abate 
the violence of opposition to this doctrine, is^ 



NOT DEROGATORY TO GOD. 9 

that it has not only been embraced and defended 
by many of the wisest and purest men in the 
best days of the Church, but is at this moment 
embodied in the creeds and confessions of the 
great mass of Protestant Christendom.* This 
is not said with a view of sustaining by mere 
human authority, a doctrine which lacks higher 
support. But something is due to the opinions 
of a large and intelligent body of men on any 
subject; and the fact that the doctrine in ques- 
tion has been received by the Christian Church 
generally, must have great weight with every 
candid person in securing for it a respectful and 
thorough consideration before it is finally re- 
jected. 

These observations are designed to prepare 
the w r ay for a brief examination of one of the 
popular objections to the doctrine of election, 

* As a single specimen, take the following from the 
XVIIth Article of the Church of England— " Predestina- 
tion to life is the everlasting purpose of God, whereby (be- 
fore the foundations of the world were laid,) he hath con- 
stantly decreed by his counsel, secret to us, to deliver 
from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in 
Christ out of mankind, and to bring them by Christ to 
everlasting salvation as vessels made to honour.' 5 



10 



THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION 



viz.: that it is derogatory to the Divine 
character. It is often said that this doctrine, 
"instead of representing the Deity as the indul- 
gent Father of his creatures, makes him a ty- 
rant, who has created men merely to damn them, 
and who delights in witnessing their eternal 
sufferings. " 

This is a serious allegation, and if it can be 
sustained, the advocates of the doctrine must re- 
pudiate it with indignation. But let us see 
whether it does not proceed upon a total mis- 
conception of the doctrine; and whether the 
charge which is here preferred does not, in so 
far as it has any real weight, lie with equal, if 
not greater force, against the systems of those 
who reject it. 

What, then, is the doctrine of election? I 
answer, in brief, it is this: — God has, from eter- 
nity, out of his mere good pleasure, chosen in 
Christ a certain definite portion of our lost race 
unto everlasting glory. The persons thus 
chosen, being fallen in Adam, have been re- 
deemed by the Lord Jesus Christ: they are ef- 
fectually called unto faith in Christ by his Spirit 
working in due season; and they are justified, 



NOT DEROGATORY TO GOD. 11 

adopted, sanctified, and kept by his power 
through faith unto salvation. The rest of man- 
kind, God was pleased, according to the un- 
searchable counsel of his own will, to pass by 
and leave to the just consequences of their own 
sins. 

Now it will be seen at once that the Deity 
was under no obligation to save a single indi- 
vidual of our race. If he was, there is no grace 
in redemption : the death of Christ was a debt 
due to us which he had no right to withhold ; 
and those who enter heaven, may ascribe their 
salvation, not to the boundless mercy of God, 
but to their own merits. This point, how- 
ever, need not be argued ; since it is conceded 
by most professed believers in Christianity, So- 
cinians and Pelagians excepted, with whom at 
present I do not contend, that the justice of 
God would have been unimpeached had he left 
our whole race to suffer the penal consequences 
of their rebellion. If then justice would have 
sanctioned the final condemnation of the whole- 
race, where is the injustice of saving a part? If 
a thousand subjects are sentenced to die for en- 
gaging in a traitorous conspiracy against their 



12 THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION 

Prince, is he to be charged with tyranny because 
he sees fit to extend his clemency to one half of 
them and pardon them? Would this afford any 
just ground of complaint to the remainder? 
Their sentence is not less righteous than it was 
before their companions were liberated ; nor is 
its severity enhanced. They suffer now pre- 
cisely what they would have suffered without 
this display of the royal compassion to their 
fellows; and they and all men must see that 
there is no wrong done in inflicting upon them 
the penalty of the law. So also in the case be- 
fore us. The decree of election, let it be re- 
membered, finds men sinners : it has no agency 
in making them sinners. This is sometimes 
strangely overlooked. Language is frequently 
used in the discussion of this subject, which 
seems to imply that God has by a positive in- 
fluence brought men into a state of guilt and 
misery, and that having done this, he refuses to 
extricate them from it. That he has, for wise 
and holy purposes not revealed to us, permitted 
our race to fall into sin, is most true. Why he 
has done so, is a question on which many 
volumes have been written, perhaps to little pur- 



NOT DEROGATORY TO GOD. 13 

pose. It is easy to see how the apostacy of 
mankind may be, in some particulars, overruled 
for good. The astonishing display of the Di- 
vine perfections, furnished by the work of re- 
demption, and the height of glory to which the 
saints will be exalted hereafter, are among the 
great and beneficent results that have been 
educed from the awful catastrophe in which the 
race has been overwhelmed. And we infer 
from the nature of the moral government of 
God, and from some obscure intimations in the 
Scriptures, that the events which have occurred 
in our world will yet have an important influ- 
ence upon every part of His wide empire. Still, 
after all our reasonings and conjectures, there is 
a mystery about the permission of evil which is 
inexplicable to us in our present imperfect state. 
It is an ocean we cannot fathom. That God 
foresaw all the consequences which were 
to follow the fall of Adam, that he knew it 
would involve millions of souls in everlasting 
misery, that he could have prevented it, had he 
seen fit to exert his power for that purpose, 
but that he actually permitted it to take place? 
are plain facts which must be admitted by every 
2 



14 THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION 

humble believer in Christianity. Beyond the 
facts we cannot go. Happily we are not re- 
quired to explain them. We receive them as 
facts, on the testimony of God : and although 
we cannot clear them up, we bow submissively 
to the teachings of the Spirit, and are satisfied 
that there is nothing in the Divine procedure 
in these transactions which is at all at variance 
with the glorious perfections of the Godhead. 

Now the facts just stated are the same, what- 
ever views may be adopted respecting the ap- 
plication of the remedy which has been provided 
for the evils of the fall. Men may receive or 
reject the doctrine of election: the fact still re- 
mains, that our race have sinned, and are there- 
fore under the wrath and curse of God. The 
lost condition of the race is a fact independent 
of election ; a fact, therefore, which it devolves 
as much upon the impugners of that doctrine to 
explain, as upon its friends; and one which 
presses with equal weight upon their theories. 
We say, the race is in ruins; and they assent to 
it. We say, further, that God was not bound 
to provide a Saviour for any portion of the race ; 
and that to assert the contrary, is to maintain 



NOT DEROGATORY TO GOD, 1& 

the principle that whenever a subject commits 
a crime, his sovereign is under obligation, at 
whatever expense or sacrifice, to proffer him a 
pardon. Contemplating the race in its guilt 
and misery, God was pleased to determine that 
he would rescue a certain number from the 
doom which all had incurred. Was this injus- 
tice? Was this tyranny? Are similar acts on 
the part of earthly kings ever branded with 
these epithets? Are they not rather applauded 
as acts of singular lenity and kindness? And 
if an example were to occur of a prince who 
should pardon part of a band of conspirators, 
even when, from reasons of state, he must, in 
order to do it, make a sacrifice equivalent to 
that of surrendering an only son to an ignomi- 
nious death; what would be thought of men 
who should contend that this sublime and af- 
fecting transaction was only an evidence of his 
cruelty ! who, instead of extolling his generosity 
and benevolence in pardoning at such a cost a 
portion of the traitors, should only cavil because 
he had not pardoned the whole ! This illustra- 
tion appears to me to present in its true light 
the objection to the doctrine of election which 



16 THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION 

we are considering. So far from being an evi- 
dence of cruelty, the decree of election is the 
offspring of pure, ineffable, and eternal love. 
Sovereign love, I grant it is, as every thing 
else is which pertains to the Deity. But still 
it is love. If there be any love in the gift of 
God's only-begotten Son to die for us, if there 
be any love in the sufferings and death of Christ, 
if there be any love in rescuing millions and 
millions of souls from hell, and raising them to 
everlasting glory and felicity, then is election 
the fruit of love and not of wrath. For elec- 
tion lies at the foundation of redemption and 
all its beneficent results: "for whom he did pre- 
destinate, (that is, whom he " chose in Christ 
Jesus before the foundation of the world,") them 
he also called, and whom he called, them he 
also justified, and whom he justified, them he 
also glorified." So far should we be from re- 
pudiating this precious doctrine, or investing it 
with terror, that we ought to cling to it as the 
ground of our hopes, and fly to it in seasons of 
trial as the anchor of our souls. 

Here, in so far as the justice of God is con- 
cerned, the discussion, it is believed, might be 



NOT DEROGATORY TO GOD. 17 

safely closed. But this doctrine is charged 
with presenting the Divine character in a repul- 
sive aspect, in other particulars, and I must de- 
tain you with a further consideration of the sub- 
ject. 

It is contended that we place needless limita- 
tions to the mercy of God, in representing him 
as restricting his love to a part of the race. — 
" Since he is infinitely good (it is argued,) he 
must delight in the happiness of all his crea- 
tures. How then can he select a portion of 
them as the objects of his special regard, and 
leave the rest to perish?- Surely it is more ho- 
nourable to the Deity to suppose that he makes 
no such discrimination among them as this doc- 
trine implies, but loves them all with an equal 
love, and employs, in all instances, the same 
means for their salvation." 

These sentiments commend themselves, it is 
readily granted, to the best feelings of our hearts, 
and they seem to present the character of God 
in a very amiable aspect. To sinful creatures 
mercy must always appear a more lovely attri- 
bute than justice ; and it seems at first view to be 
highly honourable to the Creator, to represent 



18 THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION 

him as extending the same compassion to each in- 
dividual of our fallen race. But we are not, on 
a question of this kind, to take counsel of our own 
feelings. Our inquiry is not as to what God 
might have done, nor as to what we should 
have preferred his doing, but as to what he has 
done. 

The objection affirms the goodness of God. 
On this point there can be no controversy : this 
attribute beams forth from the works of nature, 
and from the pages of revelation, with the splen- 
dour of a noon-tide sun. But the objection far- 
ther assumes that because God is good, he is 
bound, by the necessity of his nature, to do all 
the good he can to each one of his creatures. 
This inference is false in philosophy and in fact. 
It proceeds upon the notion that the possession 
of an attribute or faculty, involves necessarily 
the constant exercise of it, and that to its full 
extent. This is so palpably erroneous that the 
mere statement of it must be sufficient to show 
its absurdity. The perfections of Jehovah are, 
it is true, in one sense, infinite, but they must 
be limited by each other in their exercise ; other- 
wise there would be a continual conflict in the Di- 



NOT DEROGATORY TO GOD. 19 

vine mind ; and the Supreme Being, instead of 
enjoying ineffable happiness, would be misera- 
ble in himself and most inconsistent in his 
actions. As to the particular attribute under 
consideration, it should be remembered that 
goodness ceases to be goodness unless it is di- 
rected by wisdom. If we separate it from this, 
we degrade it to the level of a mere instinct, 
which, as it would operate without intelligence 
or design, so it could excite neither our respect 
nor our gratitude. 

Observe, again, how irreconcilable with ob- 
vious and admitted facts, is the principle on 
which this objection is founded, viz. : the princi- 
ple that because God is good, he is bound to 
do all he can to preserve his creatures from suf- 
fering and to make them individually happy. I 
say " individually happy," because both reason 
and Scripture require us to believe that he will 
seek the happiness of the intelligent universe 
as a whole, in that way which may most effec- 
tually promote his own glory. 

However agreeable it might be to our con- 
ceptions of the Divine character to suppose that 
he would not permit a single one of his crea- 



20 THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION 

tures to suffer, if he could prevent it, we per- 
ceive at a glance that this sentiment is discoun- 
tenanced by the whole history of his dispensa- 
tions towards our race. The apostacy of our 
first parents, already adverted to, is an illustra- 
tion in point. Could he not have prevented 
that, had he seen fit to do it? And after per- 
mitting it, might he not have arrested the con- 
sequences of it with the guilty pair themselves, 
without allowing the curse to be entailed upon 
the countless generations of their posterity? 
Look, too, at the varied evils under which man- 
kind have been groaning ever since the fall. 
Look at the pains and sicknesses, the poverty 
and ignorance, the injustice and oppression, the 
vices and cruelties, with which the earth is 
scourged. Are not these tilings under God's 
control, and might he not remove them if he 
saw fit to do so? — Take another class of facts 
still more to our purpose in this argument, viz. : 
facts which show that he has exercised his sove- 
reignty in relieving a part of the race from the 
effects of the apostacy. There was a wide dif- 
ference in the characters even of Adam's two 
sons: one of them was, by a Divine influence, 



NOT DEROGATORY TO GOD. 21 

made a believer, the other was left an unbeliever ; 
one was adopted as a child of God, the other 
remained a child of the devil. In the same 
sovereign manner, God became the friend and 
protector of Noah and his family, and destroyed 
all the other families of the earth with a flood. 
He revealed the true religion to Abraham and 
a portion of his descendants, and left the rest 
of the nations to idolatry and the terrible 
retribution he has denounced against it. Un- 
der the Christian dispensation he has given 
the gospel to some countries and withheld it 
from others, and in not a few instances he has 
withdrawn it from lands which once possessed 
it. Nay, he has distributed his favours among 
the inhabitants of the same land and within the 
same community, with the like inequality — some 
individuals being placed in situations highly fa- 
vourable to their spiritual welfare, and others in 
circumstances so hostile to religion that their 
salvation would be little short of a miracle. 

Now in reference to these and other similar 
facts, we are presented with a single alterna- 
tive. We must either maintain that these 
events are not under the control of God, and 



22 THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION 

that he could not alter them if he would, or we 
must admit that he does, for wise purposes, per- 
mit his creatures to suffer, and that he exercises 
his sovereignty in making a difference between 
them. The former branch of this alternative 
will not be taken by any one who has a proper 
veneration for the Deity ; and I shall therefore 
waste no time in considering it. The only spe- 
cious way in which the force of the latter part 
of it can be evaded, is this, viz. : by alleging 
that the difference which it is here asserted is 
made by Jehovah among his creatures, is a dif- 
ference in their temporal circumstances merely, 
not in their spiritual and eternal state. It is 
obvious to remark in reply, that the principle 
involved is the same, whether the diversity cre- 
ated among them pertains to the present or the 
future life: if it would be incompatible with the 
Divine perfections to sanction it in the one case, 
it must be equally so in the other. But, waiving 
this, who does not see that the plea has no foun- 
dation in fact? It is not true that the diversi- 
fied allotments which are assigned to our race 
in this world, are restricted in their influence to 
the present life. It is too manifest to admit of 



NOT DEROGATORY TO GOD. 23 

a question, that in appointing the temporal con- 
dition of men, with all its attendant circum- 
stances, God does, to a great extent, decide 
their eternal destiny. There is, for example, a 
moral certainty that the individuals who are 
born in the heart of Asia or Africa, w T ill perish 
in their sins, and go down with all idolaters to 
the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone. 
Can it be said that in so ordering events as to 
ensure their birth in the midst of pagan super- 
stitions, the Creator has determined nothing in 
regard to their prospects for eternity ? And as 
to Christian lands, doesiie determine nothing 
as to the future life in giving to some indi- 
viduals, pious parents, a religious education, free 
access to all the means of grace, and a circle of 
friends whose example and counsels are adapted 
to lead them into the way of salvation ; while 
others, the children of vicious parents, are left 
to grow up in ignorance of the God who made 
them, daily exposed to all the enticements of 
intemperance and debauchery, and without a 
single friend to admonish them of their danger 
and to care for their souls? Surely these fa- 
miliar facts are sufficient to show, that while God 



24 THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION 

is merciful and kind, he claims the right to dis- 
pose of his creatures in that way which may 
best promote the great ends of his government ; 
and none are permitted to c stay his hand or say 
unto him, What doest thou? ' 

We need not, however, rest here. There are 
other facts which deserve the special attention 
of those who, from the most amiable motives, 
are so prompt in repelling as a slander upon the 
Almighty, the idea that he can elect one portion 
of our race to salvation and leave the rest to 
perish. Ho1v, on the principles assumed by 
these persons, is the providence of God towards 
the angels to be explained? Here there is no 
room for conjecture. It is a fact recorded by 
inspired men, that a part of the angelic throng 
have rebelled against God, and that he has sent 
them down to hell, to suffer eternal torment and 
despair. How is this to be reconciled to the 
divine goodness, by those who denounce the 
doctrine of election with so much vehemence, in 
its application to the human family ? Was there 
no election here? If not, why are the holy 
angels called the "elect angels?" and why are 
they steadfast in holiness, while their fellows, 



NOT DEROGATORY TO GOD. 25 

once as glorious in purity and intelligence as 
they, are writhing under the vengeance of eternal 
fire? Is it said, that the lost spirits are only 
suffering the punishment due to their crimes? 
This is true : but the question still recurs, why- 
were they permitted to rebel? Why did not 
the same hand which had previously held them 
up, and which still upholds their companions, de- 
fend them from that fatal temptation by which 
they were overcome, and for yielding to which 
they were hurled as lightning from heaven? I 
do not ask these questions expecting them to be 
answered. For setting aside the impious answer 
of those modern theologians who say that God 
could not prevent their apostacy; no solution 
of the mystery can be given : we can only re- 
solve it, as all sincere and humble Christians are 
accustomed to do, into the sovereign pleasure 
of God, and say, "Even so, Father, for so it 
seemed good in thy sight." But the questions 
are designed to show that no argument can be 
drawn from the goodness of the Deity, to dis- 
prove the doctrine of election. We bring for- 
ward the acknowledged fact, that in the case of 
an order of creatures every way more exalted 
3 



26 THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION 

than our own, God has displayed his sovereignty 
in allowing some of them to fall, to rise no 
more, while he has confirmed the remainder in 
holiness and happiness. Inexplicable as this 
procedure appears to us, we do not allow it to 
affect in the least degree our notions of the Di- 
vine goodness. Our confidence in his rectitude, 
his benevolence, and his mercy, cannot be shaken 
even by the weeping and w T ailing which resound 
through the gloomy prison of those once pure 
and blessed beings. Why then should it be 
thought a thing incredible that the all- wise 
Creator should pursue a similar course towards 
ourselves? How can it be incompatible with his 
goodness to do with our race, as we know he 
has done with the angels? And with what 
reason can it be alleged that the decree of elec- 
tion makes Him a "tyrant," when applied to 
us, although it involves no impeachment of his 
justice or goodness when applied to them ? Con- 
sistency would seem to require that those who 
brand the doctrine with so many hard names in 
the one case, should not shrink from the respon- 
sibility of characterizing it in the same way in 
the other also. 



NOT DEROGATORY TO GOD. 27 

But there is still another fact to be presented., 
of no small weight in this discussion. Is it not 
sometimes overlooked, in the strong prejudice 
which is felt against this doctrine, that a very 
large portion of mankind do actually perish ? 
Whether there be or be not such a thing as un- 
conditional election to everlasting life — whether 
the doctrine be embraced or rejected — the fact is 
admitted by all, except Deists and Universalists, 
that multitudes of our race are lost eternally. 
We press this fact upon those who allege that 
our doctrine is a calumny upon the Deity. We 
call upon them to point out in what respect it 
is more derogatory to the Deity than their own 
avowed belief that many of the race are finally 
damned. We insist upon their showing that a 
single individual is lost, assuming our view of 
the doctrine of election, who would not be lost 
if the doctrine were expunged from the book of 
God's purposes. In other words, we require 
them to prove that election adds a solitary sin- 
ner to the number of them that perish. We 
utterly deny that it does this. We maintain 
that no man is made a sinner by this decree ; 
and that no man will be condemned to hell for 



28 THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION 

not being elected to salvation. That it is the 
non-elect who will be condemned, is most true ; 
but the ground, the meritorious ground of their 
condemnation, will be, not the fact of their non- 
election, but the fact that they are sinners. 
Under the government of a righteous God, no- 
thing but sin can be the ground of punishment : 
and non-election is no sin. The only fore-ordi- 
nation of men to perdition, known to the Bible 
or to our Standards, is a fore-ordination of the 
wicked to wrath on account of their sins, not 
as some would represent, irrespective of their 
sins. The elect are chosen without any fore- 
sight of their faith or good works, solely by the 
good pleasure of the Almighty : the rest of the 
race are also contemplated by Him in their true 
moral character, that is, as sinners and rebels; 

and ON THE GROUND OF THEIR POSSESSING THIS 

character, a character, let it be observed, 
which election has no agency in forming, they 
are "ordained to dishonour and wrath." In 
other words, the decree of election leaves the 
wicked where it found them. It is simply a 
"taking out" from among them, those who are 
chosen to eternal life; as we read, Acts xv. 14, 



NOT DEROGATORY TO GOD, 29 

in the speech of the apostle James at Jerusalem: 
" Simeon hath declared how God, at the firsts 
did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a 
people for his name." If none were thus " taken 
out/' it is manifest-, all would perish : so that 
election, as has been argued in the former part 
of this discourse,instead of increasing the number 
of the lost, lays the sole foundation for the sal- 
vation of any portion of the race. 

Since, then, millions of the race are actually 
lost, and since the decree of election not only 
has no agency in the destruction of a single in- 
dividual of this number, but secures the salvation 
of a multitude who would otherwise perish, w T e 
ask in what respect our doctrine is so deroga- 
tory to the Divine perfections ; and we inquire 
of those who differ from us, how they will re- 
concile to His perfections, on their own princi- 
ples, the perdition of so many of their fellow- 
creatures. Here are the two fads.: God is 
infinitely upright, and wise, and good ; and yet 
a large part of our race are to be shut up in hell 
for ever. How are these facts to be harmo- 
nized? If we are told that the perdition of the 
wicked does not impeach the divine goodness^ 
3* 



30 THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION 

because He would gladly save them if he had 
the ability to do so — that he has provided a 
Redeemer, instituted a system of means, and 
done all that he could to bring the whole race 
to repentance, but that in multitudes of cases he 
has failed of success, and his creatures have per- 
severed in sin notwithstanding his utmost efforts 
to reclaim them, — if we are told this, we have, 
indeed, an answer to the question, and an ade- 
quate cause assigned for the destruction of the 
impenitent. But see what an answer! In order 
to vindicate the goodness of God, he is stripped 
of his power. The free-will of man is made 
paramount to the omnipotence of his Maker. 
Instead of that great and glorious Being who is 
clothed with majesty and strength, who "rideth 
upon the heavens," whose "voice is like the 
voice of many waters," who "hangeth the earth 
upon nothing," and ^divideth the sea with his 
power," at whose reproof u the pillars of heaven 
tremble and are astonished," and before whom 
seraphs veil their faces: we have presented to 
us a Being, benevolent and amiable indeed, but 
utterly unable to govern his creatures, and who 
is obliged to stand by and see them perish in 



NOT DEROGATORY TO GOD. 31 

despite of every plan he can devise, and every 
influence he can employ to prevent it. Is this 
the God of the Bible? Is the Lord God Om- 
nipotent really so imbecile a sovereign that his 
subjects can countervail his purposes and defeat 
plans which are identified with his own glory ? 
And are we to be told by those who embrace 
these unworthy views of the Deity, that " the 
doctrine of election is derogatory to the divine 
character?" Does it befit them to rebuke the 
friends of this doctrine, who begin their vindi- 
cation of the Almighty by breaking his sceptre, 
and taking off his crown, and pulling down the 
pillars of his throne, and proclaiming in the face 
of earth, and heaven, and hell, that the creatures 
he has formed out of the dust of his footstool, 
are independent of his control, and that he can- 
not save them unless in the exercise of their 
free-will they shall permit him to do it? We 
rejoice that we know no such divinity as this. 
Bad as our doctrine may be in the judgment of 
its opposers, it at least leaves us a God whom 
we can respect. Sooner than impugn the 
glorious majesty of the Godhead and degrade 
him to their standard, we would have "the 



39 



THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION 



clouds and darkness" which enwrap his throne, 
seven fold deeper, and the manifestations of his 
vengeance upon the vessels of wrath, seven fold 
more awful than they are. In reasoning upon 
his goodness we may err, especially when we are 
attempting, rather from the light of nature than 
from Scripture, to prescribe what his goodness 
may require him to do for an apostate race like 
our own. But we cannot err in ascribing to 
him absolute sovereignty over all the works 
of his hands. 

We decline, then, the explanation on which 
others choose to rest, of the painful fact that 
millions of our race are actually lost. In our 
view, the fact assumed to explain it, viz.: that 
the Deity, though he desires to the utmost their 
salvation, has no ability to accomplish it, would 
involve, if established, an infinitely greater ca- 
tastrophe to the universe, than the perdition of 
a thousand worlds like this. The only alterna- 
tive which remains to us, is to fall back upon 
the Divine sovereignty. The all- wise God, for 
reasons unrevealed to us, has not seen fit to ex- 
tend his pardoning mercy to the whole of the 
race, and a portion of them are left to surfer the 



NOT DEROGATORY TO GOD. OO 

just penalty of their sins. This solution may 
not be very flattering to our intellectual pride, 
nor very satisfactory to our curiosity ; but it is 
the only one which the Scriptures furnish, and 
it must suffice us for the present life. I leave 
it to you to decide whether the difficulties 
with which the fact that so many perish is 
encumbered, are mitigated or eluded by discard- 
ing the doctrine of election ; and whether this 
doctrine, fairly understood, contains any thing 
so derogatory to the Deity, as the theories to 
which it stands opposed. The doctrine does 
indeed recognise his sovereignty, and herein it 
may disturb the composure of those who love 
to think of him only as the kind and compas- 
sionate Father of his creatures. But it is sub- 
mitted to their candour, whether his paternal 
character is the only one in which the Scrip- 
tures present him to us. Let them turn, for 
example, to the first chapter of 1 Corinthians, 
where they will find it thus written, (vs. 26 — 
29,) "For ye see your calling, brethren, how 
that not many wise men after the flesh, not 
many mighty, not many noble are called : but 
God hath chosen the foolish things of the world 



34 THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION 

to confound the wise ; and God hath chosen the 
weak things of the world to confound the things 
which are mighty ; and base things of the world, 
and things which are despised, hath God chosen, 
yea, and things which are not, to bring to 
naught things that are: that no flesh should 
glory in his presence." And let them read the 
ninth chapter of Romans, and attend especially 
to this language: "I will have mercy on whom 
I will have mercy, and I will have compassion 
on whom I will have compassion. So then it 
is not of him that willeth, nor of him that run- 
neth, but of God that showeth mercy. . . He 
hath mercy on whom he will have mercy, and 
whom he will he hardeneth." Can any impar- 
tial person fail to see that the Most High chal- 
lenges to himself in these passages the loftiest 
prerogatives of a universal sovereignty? that 
He asserts his unqualified right to dispense his 
favours, and even to dispose of us, his rational 
creatures, after the counsel of his own will? 
Let the class of persons whom I now address, 
review again the facts which have been cited 
in this discussion, — the fall of our first parents, 
the endless diversity in the circumstances of 



NOT DEROGATORY TO GOD. 35 

mankind with respect to their spiritual privi- 
leges, the various calamities which overspread 
the earth, the apostacy and punishment of the 
angels, and the perdition of so many of our race, 
— and let them say whether these facts do not 
illustrate and confirm the testimony of Scripture, 
that God is as well a sovereign as a father. It 
avails nothing to avert our eyes from testimony 
like this. It is not to be neutralized by a refu- 
sal to consider it. And they who will consider 
it, cannot consistently object to the doctrine of 
election on the ground that it is derogatory to 
the Divine perfections, because they admit the 
existence of numerous facts, and, of course, 
believe them to be compatible with his perfec- 
tions, which really involve the very exercise of 
sovereignty implied in this doctrine. 

We agree with our brethren who reject the 
doctrine, that it is delightful to think of the in- 
comprehensible and adorable Jehovah as our 
Father; and we have no higher joy than that 
which springs from the hope of being one day 
publicly owned by him as his children. But 
until every vestige of the flood is obliterated, 
and the Dead Sea has ceased to perpetuate the 



36 THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION 

doom of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the lost 
angels are brought forth out of prison, and hell 
is annihilated, and the Bible is blotted out of 
existence, we cannot forget that he is also a 
righteous Judge and an almighty King. Our 
sympathies prompt us to weep over the eternal 
destruction of so large a portion of our fellow- 
creatures ; and we are ready to confess that we 
are utterly lost in attempting to explain the rea- 
sons why the race were permitted to fall, and 
why, having determined to give his beloved 
Son to retrieve the dreadful evils of the apostacy, 
the all-wise and merciful God was not pleased 
to extend the benefits of redemption to the whole 
human family. But our inability to unfold his 
secret purposes, furnishes us with no ground to 
cavil at his dispensations. Nor, unfathomable 
as the transaction is to our feeble faculties, are 
we able to detect in it aught that is " tyrannical " 
or "unjust." So far from it, we adore with 
gratitude unspeakable, the matchless love which, 
instead of suffering us all to perish, a procedure 
which would have left the justice of God untar- 
nished, provided an atoning sacrifice of bound- 
less worth, and brought up millions of the race 



NOT DEROGATORY TO GOD. 37 

from the confines of hell to the fruition of eter- 
nal blessedness. The character of Jehovah is 
not the less glorious in our eyes, because in 
every part of this stupendous plan, we see it to 
be "glorious in holiness" as well as in mercy: 
nor is his throne the less attractive, because in 
the voice which proceeds from it, we find the 
majesty of a God blended with the tenderness 
of a Father. 



:."58 THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION 



DISCOURSE II. 

THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION NOT DISCOURAGING TO MAN. 

" Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, Except these 
abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved." — Acts xxvii. 31. 

Of the two principal objections to the doc- 
trine of election, one has immediate respect to 
God, the other to man. The former, which 
alleges that the doctrine is derogatory to God, 
has been considered: the latter, which affirms 
that it is discouraging to man, I propose to 
examine now. This objection may be stated in 
the following form : — 

"If the individuals to be saved have been se- 
lected, and their number unchangeably fixed by a 
divine decree, it must be useless for men to con- 
cern themselves about the question of their own 
salvation. If they are of the number of the elect, 
they will be saved whether they exert them- 
selves to this end or not ; if they are not, no ef- 



NOT DISCOURAGING TO MAN, 39 

forts of their own can be of any avail. The 
omnipotent decree renders all human agency 
superfluous in the one case, and fruitless in the 
other. We have, therefore, but to fold our 
arms and await the issues to which we are sev- 
erally appointed/' 

There are a number of points embraced in 
this objection, but they may be discussed col- 
lectively. I think it can be shown that it pro 
ceeds upon a serious misconception of the doc- 
trine, and that no such consequences as are here 
specified, are fairly chargeable upon it. There 
are various lines of argument by w T hich the dif- 
ficulty might be met. I shall meet it by ob- 
serving, 

First, That God has provided an atonement, 
the value of which, in itself considered, is suf- 
ficient for the sins of all mankind. 

I speak not now of the purpose of God in re- 
spect to the application of redemption. The 
Scriptures do certainly teach, that Christ died as 
the substitute and surety of his own people, that 
is, of the people given him by the Father — that 
he "laid down his life for the sheep" — and that 
his blood shall be applied to all those included 



40 THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION 

in the covenant of grace. But I speak of the 
intrinsic worth of his atonement, when I ascribe 
to it a value adequate to the redemption of all 
mankind. The proof of this lies in the fact, that 
by reason of the union in his person of the di- 
vine and human natures, an infinite value must 
attach to his sufferings. A very few theolo- 
gians, adopting what has been styled the Geth- 
semane view of the atonement, have maintained 
that there was an exact commercial equivalency 
between his sufferings and the sins of his people, 
so that if there had been one more sinner to be 
redeemed, his sufferings must have been increased 
in a corresponding degree. But this scheme 
the great body of Calvinistic divines have re- 
jected with abhorrence. They have concurred 
generally in the sentiment, that the sufferings of 
Christ would be sufficient, had it pleased the 
Father so to extend the benefits of redemption, 
to expiate the sins of every individual of our 
race. I may be allowed to quote two eminent 
authorities on this subject. The first is Dr. 
Owen: "There is a sense in which Christ may 
be said to die for all and the whole world. His 
death was of sufficient dignity to have been 



NOT DISCOURAGING TO MAN. 41 

made a ransom for all the sins of every one in 
the world ; and on this internal sufficiency is 
grounded the universality of the gospel offers/ 5 * 
The other is the venerable Synod of Dort, which 
represented, two hundred years ago, the whole 
body of Calvinistic churches, (the church of 
England included :) " The death of the Son of 
God is a single and most perfect sacrifice and 
satisfaction for sins, of infinite value and price, 
abundantly sufficient to expiate the sins of the 
whole world." And, again: "Because many 
who are called by the gospel, do not repent nor 
believe in Christ, but perish in unbelief; this 
doth not arise from defect or insufficiency of the 
sacrifice offered by Christ, but from their own 
fault.^f 

Secondly. All men are authorized to avail 
themselves of the benefits of this atonement. 

They are offered indiscriminately to all. " Go 
ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to 
every creature." " Ho, every one that thirsteth 
come ye to the waters." "Whosoever will, let 
him take of the water of life freely." "Look 

* Display of Arminianism, ch. \x. 
] Articles of the Synod of Dort, ch. ii. 
4* 



42 THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION 

unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the 
earth." Here is the warrant which every hu- 
man being has to apply to Christ for salvation. 
And the warrant is the same to all, irrespective 
of character or condition. There is no restric- 
tion of the invitation to one part of the race ; 
no exclusion of another part. The man who 
rejects it, has just as good a warrant for accept- 
ing as the man who does accept it. If con- 
firmation of this were wanting, it might be found 
in the fact that the rejection of Christ is made 
a damning sin. If Christ was not proposed to 
men as a Saviour — if his atonement was not suf- 
ficient to expiate their sins, and they were not 
authorized to avail themselves of it, they could 
not be condemned for rejecting him. But what 
saith the Scripture? "He that believeth and 
is baptized, shall be saved; he that believeth 
not, shall be damned." It is no sin to be of the 
number of the non-elect. We nowhere read of 
a sinner's being condemned for not having been 
chosen to eternal life. "This is the condemna- 
tion, that light is come into the world, and men 
loved darkness rather than light because their 
deeds were evil." The condemnation is that 



NOT DISCOURAGING TO MAN. 43 

"when Christ calls, they refuse; when he 
stretches out his hands, they will not regard" — 
they "will not come to him that they may have 
life." 

Thirdly. Even this is not all. God has not 
only provided a system of salvation of which all 
men are authorized and commanded to avail 
themselves ; He has in many ways displayed his 
tender concern for their spiritual welfare. "As 
I live," he says, "I have no pleasure in the 
death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn 
from his way and live. Turn ye, turn ye from 
your evil ways : for why will ye die ?" To this 
solemn asseveration and appeal, he has added 
other most convincing evidences of his regard 
for our happiness. He has given us the Bible, 
the Sabbath, the preaching of the gospel, the 
ordinances of the sanctuary, the privilege of 
prayer, the ministrations of the Holy Spirit, the 
mercies and the chastisements of his providence, 
and by all these and other agencies he has hedged 
up, as it were, the way to destruction and made 
it impossible for men (in a Christian land) to 
perish, except they perish wilfully. This whole 
array of means, supplied by his providence and 



44 THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION 

grace, attests his paternal concern for his crea- 
tures, and leaves those who refuse to come to 
the marriage-supper of his Son, without the 
least excuse. 

To these three propositions, which really cover 
the whole ground, the objector will probably 
answer as follows: u Alio wing that the pro* 
vision revealed in the gospel is sufficient in itself 
for the necessities of all men, and that all are 
authorized to embrace it; still, as a matter of 
fact, only the elect will embrace it, and unless 
we know ourselves to be of that number, we can 
have no motive to apply for it* 35 On this I re- 
mark, 

1- That as the gospel proffers salvation to all 
men, and as it addresses them, not as elect or 
non-elect, but simply as sinners, no dinner has 
any right to assume that he is not embraced in 
the divine purpose of mercy. Whether he is 
or not, is a point which he can learn only from 
the result, To assume either the affirmative or 
negative of the question, is to be guilty of crimi- 
nal presumption. For what right has any crea- 
ture to challenge to himself a knowledge of the 
secret purposes of God ? And what greater in- 



NOT DISCOURAGING TO MAN- 45 

fatuation can a man display than to regulate his 
conduct on the most important of all subjects, 
by a pretended knowledge of the divine decrees, 
or a random conjecture as to the allotment they 
assign to him? These decrees are not the rule 
of our duty. We are not held responsible for 
not conforming to them. We are not bound to 
act with the least reference to them, nor even 
to know what they are. So far from it, we can- 
not by all our searching find them out. " Secret 
things belong unto God : those which are re- 
vealed belong to us and to our children." For 
complying with the written law, we are respon- 
sible. If we disobey or neglect that, it is at our 
peril. The word of God shows us at once our 
ruin and our remedy: condemns us as sinners, and 
offers us a Saviour. With this, and this alone, 
we have to do. Why should we abandon a 
known for an unknown rule ; the standard which 
God has placed in our hands, and on our confor- 
mity to which he has suspended our salvation, 
for a standard which our faculties can no more 
discover than they can comprehend the divine 
infinitude, and which God has nowhere required 
us to make the guide of our conduct? 



46 THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION 

2. Let it be particularly noted, that while the 
secret purposes of God are effectually concealed 
from us, we are perfectly sure that there is no- 
thing in the decree of election which forbids or 
prevents men from acceding to the terms of 
the gospel. 

There is a tone of remark sometimes indulged 
in on this subject, which imports that God ex- 
erts a positive influence upon the minds of a 
portion of our race, to prevent their acceptance 
of the gospel offer. But this is certainly not 
the case. The contrary is apparent from what 
has been already stated respecting the atone- 
ment and the universal proclamation of mercy. 
It is a gross imputation upon the character of 
the Deity, to suppose that he would offer sal- 
vation to men and press it upon them in every 
form of argument and expostulation, and at the 
same time secretly restrain them from accepting 
it. It is not denied that He may withdraw his 
Spirit entirely from obdurate and impious sin- 
ners, and suffer them, as a punishment, to be- 
come still more hardened under the preaching 
of the gospel. Yet even in this case, as there 
is reason to believe, he does but leave them to 



NOT DISCOURAGING TO MAN. 47 

themselves. The rejection of Christ is a sin; 
and to allege that the divine agency is efficiently 
put forth to constrain men to reject Christ, is 
to make God the author of sin. But " He can- 
not be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He 
any man." If men will not believe and repent 
— if they will not "come to Christ, that they 
may have life" — it is not a divine influence, but 
their own depravity which prevents. This is 
readily admitted by all who have been brought 
to repentance, as it would be also by those who 
are still in their sins, if they would carefully 
examine their own hearts. The importance of 
this point will appear more clearly in connexion 
with my next observation, viz. 

3. That the certainty of the result, to the 
eye of God, in respect to every individual of 
our race, compromises no one's freedom, and 
furnishes no ground for discouragement, and 
no excuse for unbelief. 

That the result is pre-determinecl in respect 
to every individual, may be proved both by rea- 
son and scripture. A God of infinite wisdom, 
goodness, power, and holiness, could not under- 
take to govern the universe without a plan ; 



48 



THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION 



and no plan would be complete or exempt from 
liability to failure, which did not embrace the 
entire agency of every rational being. " Known 
unto God are all his works from the beginning 
of the world;" for "he worketh all things after 
the counsel of his own will." How these two 
things may consist together, the sovereignty of 
God, working all things after the counsel of his 
own will, and the freedom of man, is the great 
problem which has exercised the profoundest 
minds of every age, and which is still as far 
from being solved as ever. After pursuing the 
investigation to a certain point, we come to a 
chasm which the human intellect cannot bridge 
over. That illustrious metaphysician, Mr. 
Locke, expresses himself in the following modest 
and candid manner on this subject : — " If you 
will argue for or against liberty from conse- 
quences, I will not undertake to answer you. 
For I own freely to you the weakness of my 
understanding, that though it be unquestionable 
that there is omnipotence and omniscience in 
God, our Maker, and I cannot have a clearer 
perception of any thing than that I am free, yet 
I cannot make freedom in man consistent with 



NOT DISCOURAGING TO MAN. 49 

omnipotence and omniscience in God ; though I 
am as fully persuaded of both 5 as of any truths 
I most firmly assent to. And therefore I have 
long since given off the consideration of that 
question, resolving all into this short conclusion, 
That if it be possible for God to make a free 
agent, then man is free, though I see not the 
way of it." Our Confession of Faith, while 
asserting the doctrine of the divine decrees, re- 
jects the consequences falsely charged upon that 
doctrine, one of which is, that it is incompatible 
with human liberty. "God, from all eternity, 
did by the most wise and holy counsel of his 
own will, freely and unchangeably ordain what- 
soever comes to pass ; yet so as thereby neither 
is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered 
to the will of the creatures, nor is the liberty or 
contingency of second causes taken away, but 
rather established." (Chap. iii. 1.) Our ina- 
bility to harmonize the divine sovereignty and 
his fore-ordination of all things, with man's free- 
dom, is no reason for. rejecting either of these 
doctrines. We are not required to reconcile 
them ; but since they are both propounded to us 
on adequate evidence, we are required to believe 
5 



50 THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION 

them. As regardsour freedom, the appeal may 
be safely made to every man's consciousness. 
Freedom consists essentially in a power to will 
what, at the time and on the whole, appears to 
us best to be chosen. Is not every individual 
conscious that he possesses and is constantly ex- 
ercising this power? The believer wills to 
take God as his portion, because this appears to 
him his wisest and best course. So he puts 
forth successive volitions to repent of his sins, 
to trust in Christ, to pray, to minister to the 
temporal or spiritual welfare of his fellow-crea- 
tures, to cast his contributions into the treasury 
of the Lord ; because all these duties appear to 
him to be for the best — he prefers doing these 
things to any thing else. He is conscious that 
he acts with perfect freedom. And this is the 
more observable, because we know from scrip- 
ture that the agency of the Holy Spirit is con- 
cerned in the production of all holy volitions 
and gracious exercises. No less conscious is 
the unbeliever of acting, freely in refusing to 
come to Christ. He may, indeed, act counter to 
his deliberate judgment and his general convic- 
tions of duty, but he does what, at the time, he 



NOT DISCOURAGING TO MAN. 51 

believes to be the best — he acts as he chooses — 
he "does what he likes." You may listen to a 
sermon on the duty of immediate repentance. 
Your reason may be convinced, and your con- 
science may bid you obey the divine command : 
and yet you may, as you retire from the sanc- 
tuary, decide that you will not now repent, or, 
which is the same thing, that you will hold the 
subject under consideration for the present. 
You may listen here to one of our Saviour's 
gracious invitations, and as his love and mercy 
are unveiled, and the glorious salvation he prof- 
fers you is described, you may be "almost per- 
suaded to be a Christian;" and yet you may, on 
the whole, conclude that another season will 
answer better, and so continue in your sins. 
Now in these and all similar cases, you have 
the best possible evidence, the evidence of con- 
sciousness, that you are acting without con 
straint — you are doing what you choose to do. 
And this choice, as was proved under the last 
head, cannot be referred to any influence which 
God exerts upon you. He does not incline you 
to make these wrong decisions — decisions re- 
peated every time you come to the sanctuary. 



52 THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION 

So far from it, he warns you against it. With 
mingled severity and tenderness, he expostu- 
lates with you, and bids you choose life and not 
death. It is not He who holds you back when 
you would follow the dictates of your judgment 
and conscience, but those corrupt, perverse ap- 
petites and passions which blind you to religion 
and chain you to the world. Nothing, there- 
fore, could be more unreasonable than to fall 
back upon the unknown purposes of God, as an 
apology for continuing in sin ; or to plead the 
fact that there are such purposes as a ground of 
discouragement in seeking your salvation. You 
have an irrefragable answer to all suggestions 
of this kind in your own breast ; for you know 
that all you do, you do freely. That all your 
volitions should be comprised in God's plan, 
cannot affect your freedom ; they are as free as 
though there were no such plan in existence. 

And this leads to another observation on this 
topic. If, as we maintain, God exerts no effi- 
cient agency in producing the sinful volitions of 
men, then the objection under consideration lies 
as well against the doctrine of the divine fore- 
knowledge as against the doctrine of decrees. 



NOT DISCOURAGING TO MAN. 53 

The certainty of the result, it is alleged, makes 
all effort useless. Reserving a further answer 
to this difficulty until we come to the next head, 
I w r ould observe here, that if we admit, as all 
Christians do, simply the foreknowledge of the 
Deity, we concede the pre-certainty of all events 
to Him. He must have known from eternity, 
who w T ould under the renewing influences of his 
Spirit embrace the gospel, and who would re- 
ject it, and all the circumstances pertaining to 
each particular case. But how can this fact 
interfere with our liberty? How can it modify 
our conduct? How can it affect in any way 
our duties and responsibilities? If this fore- 
knowledge was ours — if we w r ere certain w T hat 
was to be our future conduct with all its conse- 
quences — the case would be widely altered. 
But how can this certainty in God's mind influ- 
ence us ; or with what propriety can we appeal 
to it in deciding questions of duty ? 

There never was a battle fought, the issue of 
which was not as certain to God before as after 
it? Did this affect the plans or exertions of the 
hostile armies? The battle of New-Orleans 
took place a fortnight after the plenipotentiaries 
5* 



54 



THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION 



of the two powers had signed a treaty of peace. 
This fact was known not only to the Supreme 
Being, but to thousands of people in Europe. 
But did it have any influence upon the troops 
engaged in that contest? The awful disaster 
which overwhelmed one of our packet-ships 
near Liverpool a few months since, was cer- 
tainly known to Omniscience before it occurred ; 
but had his knowledge of it any influence upon 
the persons who embarked in that vessel ? All 
that is to occur in Europe during the next six 
months, is known to God. He might, if he saw 
fit, reveal it to you. Would your knowledge 
of it, supposing you kept it to yourself, trench 
upon the liberty of a single individual there, or 
modify his conduct in the slightest degree? It 
seems almost puerile to multiply illustrations of 
this point. But men seem to ascribe I know 
not what mysterious and malign influence to the 
fact that their conduct is fore-known to God ; 
and to imagine that they are on this ground less 
free than they would otherwise be in respect to 
their compliance with the terms of the gospel. 
I trust the fallacy of this impression has been 
made apparent to every reader: it will be still 
farther exposed as we proceed. 



NOT DISCOURAGING TO MAN. 55 

4. As the decree of election leaves the free- 
dom of man unimpaired, so it not only permits 
but requires the use of means in securing our 
salvation, 

" If I am to be saved, I shall be saved ; if I am 
to be lost, I shall be lost. The issue is settled 
by a Divine decree, and my own exertions have 
nothing to do with it." This is a sentiment 
frequently uttered by men who are not disposed 
to give up their sins and make their peace with 
God. It is sometimes entertained also, by per- 
sons of a more serious turn, who really believe 
that the doctrine of election has interposed some 
new obstacle in the way of their salvation, and 
that it discountenances all effort on the part of 
the sinner. 

This objection has already been answered. 
It has been shown that a sufficient provision 
has been made for the wants of the world — 
that all mankind are authorized and even com- 
manded to avail themselves of it — and that God 
has manifested his concern for the spiritual wel- 
fare of our race, in the most unequivocal and 
affecting methods — that no individual has a 
right to assume that he is of the number of the 



56 THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION 

non-elect, or to regulate his conduct in any par- 
ticular by a pretended regard to the secret pur- 
poses of God — that there is nothing in the de- 
cree of election which forbids or prevents men 
from acceding to the terms of the gospel — and 
that the certainty of the result in every case, 
compromises no one's freedom, and furnishes 
neither any ground for discouragement, nor any 
excuse for unbelief. If these things are so, 
there can be no room whatever for the idea that 
the result must be all one, whether we exert 
ourselves to secure our salvation or not- — a sen- 
timent which is as much in conflict with the 
whole tenor of the Bible, as it is likely to be 
fatal to those who entertain it. To show that 
our doctrine is not open to this cavil, let it be 
noted, 

That the Divine decrees embrace not only 
ends but means ; and that both in temporal and 
spiritual things, where an end is decreed, the 
means by which it is to be reached or accom- 
plished are also decreed. 

I speak of ' temporal 9 things here, because 
some persons appear to think that the Divine 
decrees are restricted to spiritual matters. This 



NOT DISCOURAGING TO MAN. 57 

is so far from being a correct opinion, that 
the Scriptures represent all events, however 
trivial, as being embraced in those decrees. 
Reason teaches the same thing ; for in the great 
concatenation of causes and effects, trifling and 
important events are so linked together, that the 
omission of the least link must have broken the 
whole chain. If the captive Israelites are to 
be emancipated, and a great commonwealth 
founded, the freest and the noblest the world 
had ever seen, an Egyptian princess, seeking 
her own recreation, must be brought down to 
the Nile, just at the place and at the time t& 
rescue a Hebrew infant, cast upon the stream 
in an ark of bulrushes. If the downfall of Rome 
is to be averted, the decree which ensures it 
must no less include the cackling of the geese 
on the Capitoline Hill. If the American colo- 
nies are to become an independent and powerful 
Republic, the decree which ordains it must no 
less ordain that a colonial mother shall unwit- 
tingly reserve her beloved son to become the 
leader of their armies and the " Father of his 
country," by refusing her assent to his accept- 
ing a midshipman's warrant already obtained 



58 THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION 

for him in the British Navy. Every harvest is 
included in the Divine purposes; but not the 
reaping without the sowing ; — the issue of every 
voyage, but not the gain or loss, without the 
building and fitting out of the ship and all the 
skill and labour demanded by the enterprise. 
If it is decreed that you are to make an advan- 
tageous sale of goods, it is no less decreed that 
you are to go to your warehouse and show your 
customer the goods, and agree with him as to 
the terms. If it is decreed that you are to 
build yourself a house, it is equally decreed that 
you are, in person or by proxy, to purchase 
your lot and make the requisite contracts with 
the mechanics. If it is decreed that your chil- 
dren are to receive a good education, it is no 
less decreed that you are to employ suitable 
teachers. All this is readily admitted. It is 
only where the salvation of the soul is con- 
cerned, that men are chargeable with the folly 
and presumption of supposing that a Divine de- 
cree respecting the end, renders all use of means 
on their part nugatory. On this subject alone 
are they disposed to substitute the secret pur- 
poses of God for his revealed will (revealed 



NOT DISCOURAGING TO MAN. 59 

whether in his word or by his providence,) as 
their rule of duty. On other subjects they obey 
the dictates of that common sense which was 
displayed by the companions of the apostle 
Paul in his shipwreck. After they had been 
driving about in the storm for c many clays/ he 
said to them, " There shall be no loss of any 
man's life among you, but of the ship. For 
there stood by me this night, the angel of God, 
whose I am and whom I serve, saying, Fear 
not, Paul, thou must be brought before Cesar; 
and lo, God hath given thee all them that sail 
with thee." (Acts xxvii. 22—24.) This was 
certainly, if the case could be, an assurance of 
preservation which would have warranted them 
in disregarding all means, and trusting solely 
to the Divine purpose for deliverance. But 
when, on the ship's striking, the apostle saw 
some of the sailors about getting into the boat 
to escape from the vessel, he said to the centu- 
rion and the soldiers, c Except these abide in 
the ship, ye cannot be saved.' In other words, 
their deliverance was decreed ; but it was de- 
creed in connection with the requisite means. 
And believing this, the men remained in the 



60 THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION 

ship. Precisely in the same way, salvation is 
decreed, but the decree embraces in every in- 
stance the means by which it is to be effected. It 
is not the mere salvation of a sinner which is de- 
creed, but with this, all the agencies which lead 
to it. The Divine purpose takes in his parentage, 
birth, residence, education, companions, business, 
successes, misfortunes, health, sicknesses, reli- 
gious advantages, and all the influences by which 
his character and course of life are shaped and 
moulded. Men, I repeat it, are not simply chosen 
to salvation; they are "chosen to salvation 
through sanctification of the Spirit and heliefof 
the truth" Faith and repentance are as much a 
part of the decree as salvation. God has given 
us his word, the Sabbath, the ministry, the pri- 
vilege of prayer, and other blessings, as means 
of grace — as the appointed channels through 
which he ordinarily bestows salvation. These 
means must be used. The truth must be brought 
into contact with men's minds: it must be be- 
lieved and obeyed. God had " much people " in 
Corinth. How did he save them? By send- 
ing Paul to preach to them. He had a people 
in Samaria, and Philip must needs go and preach 
there. He had determined to save Cornelius 



NOT DISCOURAGING TO MAN. 61 

and Peter must go down to Cesarea to tell him 
and his household ' all things that were com- 
manded him of God,' He had a people among 
us, and he sent them the gospel, and they gave 
heed to it and are saved. It was, indeed, de- 
creed that they should give heed to it ; but this 
they did not and could not know beforehand. 
They felt that it w r as their duty to do it, for 
the Divine command was too explicit to be mis- 
taken; and, acting as freely as they had ever 
done in rejecting Christ, they ' submitted them- 
selves to the righteousness of God/ and accepted 
his proffered mercy. 

This is the duty of every individual who 
is yet out of Christ. There is not one of you 
that has not all the warrant and all the encou- 
ragement to repent and believe in Christ, which 
they had, prior to their conversion, who actu- 
ally have repented and believed. It was not 
the unrevealed decrees of God on which they 
proceeded, but his written w T ord. The same Sa- 
viour invites you who invited them: the same 
God commands you ; the same pardon is ten- 
dered you ; the same heaven and hell are set be- 
fore you. If you are blind, so were they. If 
6 



62 THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION 

you are impotent, so were they. If you are 
dead in trespasses and sins, so were they. But 
they called upon God for help, and so may you. 
They besought the Holy Spirit to give them 
light, and strength, and life — to deliver them 
from bondage, work repentance in their hearts, 
and lead them to Christ — and so may you. Do 
you allege that God heard their prayers, but 
you do not know that he would hear yours? 
They had no more assurance on this point, be- 
fore they tried it, than you have — and this, by 
the way, is assurance enough. Do you urge 
that the Holy* Spirit assisted them and did for 
them all they wanted? You have just as much 
ground to hope that he will assist you, as they 
had to expect his aid. — What, then, hinders 
your salvation? "I do not know that I am 
elected." Do you know that you are to reach 
your house after this service, and do you mean 
to remain here until you have some assurance 
of it? Do you know whether this is to be a 
lucrative or a losing week in your business, and 
will you remain at home until you ascertain? 
Did you know, the last time you had a serious 
illness, whether you were to recover, and did you 



NOT DISCOURAGING TO MAN. 63 

forego all means until it was revealed to you that 
you were to get well? Why should you use 
means to prolong your natural life, when the pe- 
riod of its duration is unalterably fixed ? " His 
days are determined, the number of his months 
are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds 
that he cannot pass." Why not say, when sick, 
6 If I am to live, I shall live, whatever I leave 
undone ; and if I am to die, I shall die, what- 
ever I may do.' The question of your salva- 
tion is not more irrevocably settled than is the 
erm of your natural life ; yet in this case you 
will neglect no means to preserve life ; in that 
you will plead that there is a " decree," and 
refuse all means. Is this conduct defensible 
either at the bar of Scripture or reason? 

What God has decreed concerning us we 
shall not know until we stand before him. But 
this we do know, that he offers us salvation, 
and commands all men every where to accept 
of it under penalty of eternal death, and that 
he exerts no influence upon us to prevent our 
complying with this requirement. Does it be- 
come us, in these circumstances, virtually to 
say to the Supreme Being that he has not done 



64 THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION 

enough for our salvation — that although he sent 
his only-begotten Son to die for us, and offers 
us an interest in his precious blood without mo- 
ney and without price, we will not receive him 
as our Saviour unless He first places in our 
hands the Book of Life, and lets us turn over 
its leaves to see if our names are there? It 
might seem as though a bare possibility of 
escaping eternal misery and securing a place in 
heaven, would be sufficient to put every one 
upon the most earnest and untiring exertions — 
that nothing would be omitted which promised 
to contribute in the slightest degree to a result 
so vitally connected with our everlasting well- 
being. People who are in a burning house or 
a sinking ship, are not in the habit of waiting 
for a revelation from heaven to assure them that 
they shall not perish, but eagerly avail them- 
selves of any expedients, even the most despe- 
rate, which may hold out the slightest hope of 
deliverance. It is only where the soul and eter- 
nity are concerned, that men would require God 
to put into their hands a title-deed to paradise 
as the condition on which they will consent to 
exert themselves for their own salvation — as 



NOT DISCOURAGING TO MAN. 85 

though the Creator and not themselves were the 
obliged party in the case. 

Individuals who in this way set both the Bi- 
ble and common sense at defiance? and whose 
conduct in all secular transactions condemns 
their conduct on this subject? certainly have no 
reason to suppose that they are likely to be 
saved. God has authorized no man to expect 
salvation? who will not use the means of grace 
with all diligence and prayer. Salvation is be- 
stowed freely ; but it is not usually bestowed 
without being sought. If it is not worth seek- 
ing, it is not worth having. And for any man 
to allege that a divine decree has precluded him 
from seeking it? or that it is not offered him in 
the Bible in good faith? is simply untrue. If 
he will attend to what passes in his own mind 
when he is listening to the admonitions or invi- 
tations of the gospel? he will find that the influ- 
ence which holds him back is an influence from 
within? not from above. Nor can he plead m 
answer to this, the want of ability to comply 
with the divine commands. This plea is both im- 
pertinent and irreverent? unless he has a sincere 
desire to obey those commands? and is actually 



66 THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION 

endeavouring to comply with them as far as he 
can. That regeneration is the work of the 
Holy Spirit, and that "no man can come to 
Christ except the Father draw him/' is most 
true. But there are some things which every 
man can do towards his own salvation, and 
which of course he is bound to do. He can as 
well employ his powers and faculties upon the 
subject of religion, as upon any other subject. 
He can study the scriptures as well as other 
books. He can pr.ay. He can come to the 
sanctuary twice on the Sabbath, and spend the 
rest of the day in profitable reading, reflection, 
self-examination, and pray££. He can ordina- 
rily attend lectures or prayer-meetings during 
the week; he can make conscience of putting 
off his sins; he can watch against his evil tem- 
pers; he can be more circumspect in his conduct, 
more faithful in the performance of his duties ; 
he can avoid those scenes and associations which 
are most hostile to seriousness of mind, and seek 
those which will foster thoughtfulness, and 
strengthen him in turning from sin to holiness. 
All this, and more than this, he can do, and 
God requires it of him* u Search the scrip- 






NOT DISCOURAGING TO MAN. 67 

tures." "Let the wicked forsake his way, and 
the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him 
return to the Lord, who will have mercy upon 
him, and to our God, for he w T ill abundantly par- 
don. " " Ask, and ye shall receive ; seek, and ye 
shall find ; knock, and it shall be opened unto 
you." Now unless a man is doing these things, 
unless he is "striving to enter in at the strait 
gate," can he with any decency allege, as an 
excuse for his impenitence, that he has no ability 
to comply with God's commands? How or 
when does he expect to receive ability? It is 
in the path of duty that God meets and helps 
his creatures. "Work out your own salvation 
with fear and trembling, for it is God who work- 
eth in you to will and to do of his good plea- 
sure." It is the great incentive and encourage- 
ment we have to seek salvation, that in the 
humble and prayerful use of the means of grace 
we may expect to receive help from above. 
" Then shall ye know, if ye follow on to know 
the Lord." If we follow the light we have, 
we shall have more. If we use the strength 
we have, it will be increased. 

Sincere inquirers after the truth, who are 



63 THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION 

disposed to do what has now been hinted at — 
who will forego all cavilling and take the word 
of God as their guide — so far from considering 
the doctrine of election as a ground of dis- 
couragement, should regard it as a source of 
hope and confidence. Indeed, this is the only 
proper light in which it can be viewed ; for this 
doctrine alone lays a foundation for the salva- 
tion of any of our race ; if none were chosen 
to eternal life, none would be saved. And 
those who ' are chosen, are ordinarily saved in 
the way or by the process just described. They 
are convinced of the truth of Christianity, and 
made to feel its importance: there springs up 
in their breasts a desire to ' win Christ and be 
found in him ; ? they are disposed to renounce 
the world, to 'put away their sins by repent- 
ance and their iniquities by turning unto God ; ' 
they begin, therefore, to seek in earnest an in- 
terest in the Saviour, by a conscientious and 
prayerful use of the means of grace, until they 
are at length enabled to receive and rest upon 
Christ as he is freely offered them in the gos- 
pel. In all this, from first to last, although 
they are conscious, and, from the nature of the 



NOT DISCOURAGING TO MAN. 69 

human mind, can be conscious, only of their 
own exercises, they are under the gentle influ- 
ences of the Holy Spirit. It was He who 
awakened their self-reproaches and their dissatis- 
faction with the world, who made them willing 
to renounce their sins, who disposed them to 
frequent the sanctuary, to read the Bible, and 
to address their importunate prayers to God, 
and who constrained them to come as helpless, 
polluted, lost sinners to that c fountain which 
has been opened for sin and for uncleanness.' 
As to all, therefore, who are conscious of enter- 
taining such sentiments as these — all who de- 
sire to be saved and who are disposed imme- 
diately to seek for salvation in God's appointed 
way — there is every thing in the doctrine of 
election to animate and encourage them. 

Those, however, who choose to employ them- 
selves in cavilling at the truth — who are re- 
solved to take the secret purposes of Jehovah 
instead of his revealed word, as their rule of 
duty, and to go on in their impenitence, heed- 
less of all the love and mercy of the gospel — 
would do well to remember that God is as well 
a Sovereign as a Saviour, and that he will in 



70 THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION 

the end pour out his indignation " upon the ves- 
sels of wrath fitted to destruction." " He hath 
mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom 
he will he hardeneth." Wilful and obstinate 
sinners who refuse to believe the plain teachings 
of his word, who virtually charge him with in- 
justice for not saving the whole race, and who 
even presume to plead his unrevealed decrees 
as an apology for their impiety, thus making 
the Holy One the " minister of sin," may be left 
to harden themselves in transgression until they 
make their perdition sure. If there be any of 
you who are treading on this dangerous ground, 
let me entreat you to fly from it while the door 
of mercy is yet open to you. Rest assured that 
if you perish, you will not have the poor con- 
solation of charging your perdition either to 
the insufficiency of the atonement, or to the de- 
cree of predestination. You will then see that 
the mercy of God brought salvation to your 
very door, and that with the same right and the 
same encouragement to accept of it as any of 
your fellow-sinners, you thrust it from you, and 
"would not come to Christ that you might have 
life." The consciousness that it was your own 



NOT DISCOURAGING TO MAN. 71 

hand which barred the gates of heaven against 
you, will be the bitterest ingredient in your cup 
of misery: and of all the harrowing, heart- 
rending sounds which will ring in your ears in 
that world of wo, the most agonizing and the 
most incessant will be that awful sentence, 
"Thou hast destroyed thyself!" 

Such is an imperfect exhibition of the Scrip- 
ture doctrine of election, in respect to the two 
most popular and most serious objections to it. 
I trust it has been shown that this doctrine is 
not derogatory to the divine perfections; and 
that as regards man, it neither justifies a pre- 
sumptuous self-confidence, nor is adapted to dis- 
courage the humble and conscientious inquirer 
after truth. Most of the difficulties and per- 
plexities experienced on this subject, arise either 
from a misconception of the doctrine, or from 
that repugnance to the sovereignty of God which 
is a main element in our natural depravity. 
Whether the doctrine be true or not, is a ques- 
tion to be decided, not by our own feelings, nor 
by creeds and confessions, but by the Scriptures. 
Let me respectfully, but earnestly invite you, 



72 THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION 

then, to examine your Bibles with diligence, 
candour, and prayer, to ascertain "whether these 
things are so." And if you find that the doc- 
trine of election is really taught in the w r ord of 
God, let neither the cavils of the skeptical, the 
sneers of the ungodly, nor the ridicule of Chris- 
tian professors who know too little of theology 
to ford even its shallowest brooks, prevent you 
from embracing and clinging to it. "For all 
flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the 
flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the 
flower thereof falleth aw T ay : but the word of 
the Lord endureth for ever. And this is 
the word, which by the gospel is preached unto 
you." 



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